Method for manipulation of objects within electronic graphic documents

ABSTRACT

A method of transforming location based objects, such as text, included in a digital source Artwork file, for example a geographical map file, and creating a transformed target Artwork file. The method is particularly advantageous in converting geographical maps from one language to another. The method includes tools for extracting the required location based objects, for example text elements, from the source file, including all pertaining information, into a first intermediate structured database, represented for the user as, for example, a structured table. The required transformations are then operated on the extracted objects, partly manually but also automatically creating a transformed second intermediate database, which is subsequently integrated with the source file to create a target file, which represents, for example, a new map with translated text on new layers.

FIELD AND BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The present invention is related to a document processing method andcorresponding system, and especially to the method and system used toautomatically manipulate objects contained within existing electronicartwork documents. Modern electronic document processing for publishing,either for print or digital display, frequently requires design andproduction of visually rich content. There are many software packagesavailable for professional creation, layout and editing of drawings,illustrations and images, together with text, henceforth such hybriddocuments will be generally referred to, as known in the art, asArtwork. Following is a concise list of known in the art professionalArtwork producing programs:

-   -   Graphic Draw (Illustration, Vector) programs: Illustrator™ by        Adobe Systems Inc.®, USA.; Freehand by Macromedia Inc.®, USA.;        Corel Draw™ by Corel Corporation®, Canada.    -   These programs are typically used for creating complex and        graphically rich documents for print and display.    -   Page layout programs: Quark Express™ by Quark Inc.®, USA.,        Pagemaker™ by Adobe Systems Inc.®, USA., InDesign™ by Adobe        Systems Inc.®, USA.

These are popular desktop programs, typically used for design, layout,editing and manipulating of multi-page documents involving largeramounts of text together with and around graphics, drawings,illustrations and images.

-   -   Image editing (paint) programs: Photoshop™ from Adobe Systems        Inc.®. PhotoPaint™ from Corel Corporations, Canada.    -   These programs are typically used for creation, editing and        manipulating of photographic (Bitmap) images, and also have some        text handling capabilities.

All the above mentioned program families are commonly referred to as DTP(Desk Top Publishing) applications. These modern DTP applicationstypically rely for their output on the core graphic functionalities ofthe Postscripts Page description Language (PDL) by Adobe Systems Inc.®.

Computer Aided Design (CAD) programs such as AutoCad™ by Autodesk® Inc.are typically used for design, production and editing of technical andengineering drawings. CAD programs typically rely on different PDLs.

Additionally, for each of the above-mentioned programs plug-ins andextension program from other vendors exist that add functionalities ontothe basic application. For example, MapPublisher™, by Avenza®, Canada,that facilitates the creation of geographic maps using external datafrom Geographic Information System (GIS) databases. MapPublisher™ isoffered for both Illustrator by Adobe Systems Inc.®, USA and Freehand™by Macromedia Inc.®, USA.

A distinction should be drawn between Artwork creating programs andword-processing, spreadsheet, database and other, typically officeoriented applications, which may also have some limited Artwork creationfunctionalities, but are primarily designed for different uses.

Typically, artwork programs handle text objects and graphic non-textobjects in the same manner, offering many common manipulation andtransformation tools.

In this document an Artwork creating software program will be referredto as Artwork program, and a file created by an Artwork program will bereferred to as an Artwork file.

Typically an Artwork may contain text in relatively short descriptivephrases, such as titles, slogans, labels, annotations, headers,captions, inscriptions, etc., as well as longer paragraphs, henceforthto be referred to as Text Objects. Artwork programs are generallyemployed for various fields of applications such as drafting ofmachinery parts (CAD), map making, advertising and other printedmaterial, as well as for electronically distributed files. Some Artworkprograms, namely Illustration (Draw) and Computer Aided Design (CAD)programs, are especially designed to create complex graphics, such asmaps that may also contain numerous short text labels as well as otherbasic graphic objects, such as lines, circles, ellipses, squares,rectangles and more complex objects created from the basic objects orpart of them.

The present invention deals with capabilities, limitations anddeficiencies of currently available Artwork programs when the pupose isto externally apply changes in an efficient way, whether these changesare, location attributes and/or style attributes of textual andnon-textual objects to one or more objects in an Artwork, as well as toexternally add new objects to an existing Artwork file as a result ofcalculations or transformations externally applied to the originalobjects.

A brief description of the common modification handling capabilities ofknown-in-the-art programs is hereby presented. All Artwork programsoffer tools for entering, importing and editing of text and graphicobjects, typically allowing precise graphic manipulations andmodifications of Graphic Attributes such as position, distribution,direction and relations to other objects. Furthermore, these Artworkprograms provide tools to access and precisely manipulate variousfeatures pertaining to text formatting Character Attributes such astypeface, font size, weight, alignment, etc., and Paragraph Attributessuch as width, height, justification, line spacing, etc. . . .Illustration programs further provide tools for applying special effectsto objects and text, such as attaching text to path, wrap text aroundgraphics, scale, mirror, reflect, add outline, inline, zoom andhighlighting effects. Henceforth the combined text and object formattingand transformation features will be referred to as object manipulations.

Modern structured documents may be produced, using layer and stylemetaphors, allowing names to be applied to layers and to sets ofappearance attributes called styles.

Artwork programs are typically operated by skilled professionals such asgraphic designers, draftsmen, cartographers and DTP computer operators,trained in using these sophisticated software tools. Henceforth thetypical operator of an Artwork program will be referred to as Designer.

An Artwork can be a relatively simple task of creating a measuring ruleror a complex task such as a road map, a packaging design, a drawing of amachine part, an advertisement or illustration to be subsequentlyprinted as a map, a poster in a magazine or newspaper, etc., whichalternatively may become part of a web page or a multi-mediapresentation. A typical geographic map for a school atlas will beprovided henceforth as an Artwork example and will be related tothroughout this document.

The preparation of a single page of Artwork involves several stages andrequires performance of many steps and operations. The Designer's jobtypically originates from other professionals, such as teachers,engineers, scientists, art directors, editors and other professionalsfrom vastly diverse fields. We shall use the general term Originatorhenceforth in this document. An originator would typically specify therequired artwork and provide the information needed by the designer toperform the production of the artwork.

In a typical production workflow several stages of planning, designing,editing, revising and correcting are required. A designer, working withan Artwork program is required to provide intermediate proofs both forreview and comment by the originator, proofreaders or experts in therelevant area. Examining a typical workflow nowadays will likely revealthat, due to differences in computer programs and platforms, thedesigner's output (Artwork) is seldom sent out as a “Working file” (inthe native Artwork program file format), but is printed out as a “hardcopy” or delivered as digital files, typically Adobe Acrobat (PDF) fileswhich are universally viewable, notatable and printable. Since theoriginator, designer, editor, proof reader etc., seldom work together atthe same physical place, printed proofs and/or PDF files need to bedistributed or passed along from one professional to the next, and theirvarious recommendations need to be indicated and sent back to thedesigner. Typically, required modifications to the Artwork have to bemanually performed by the designer within the specific Artwork program.

The typical production process, involving several steps, operations andinteractions between several professionals for a typical job such as thecreation of a map for a school atlas, i.e. a single page of Artwork, maytake several days or weeks until approved and considered final.

Once completed, the textual content of the Artwork may have to betranslated into other languages. The objective of translating an Artworkwill be dealt with in detail in the present invention.

The original language of the text in the source Artwork will behenceforth referred to as the “source language”.

The new desired language will henceforth be referred to as the “targetlanguage”.

A copy of the Artwork file in its original file format in the sourcelanguage, will typically be available as well as a printed “hard copy”and/or a PDF file for the preparation of the required translations intothe target language. To this end the text elements in the Artwork mustbe located and marked for translation and preferably be extracted to atext file.

Typically an Artwork program provides an option to “export” a file withthe text strings only (.txt) or with some limited formatting (.rtf)file. No information concerning layers or styles, nor attributes such asGraphic, Effect and Transformation Attributes are typically included insuch files.

A text file is the most common file format allowing translators to workon their preferred computer platform, using their own programs,typically word processing applications, to provide their translations.Within the word-processing program, translations are typed or imported(“copy and paste” operation) next to or following the original textelements. Translators may make use of “Translation Memory” programs thatoffer tools for the recycling of existing translations.

Since the average translator is not skilled in the use of Artworkprograms, the target language translations are typically provided to thedesigner in the translator's word-processing program file format, as anRTF file, as a plain text file or as a “hard copy” printout. For ease ofuse, the source language text together with the target language may beprovided in a tabular format. The designer has to “open” the relevantsource Artwork file in its originating Artwork program and replace eachtext element with its corresponding target language translation.Presently, the designer has to manually perform this task of replacingeach desired text element: each text element must initially beidentified, located and selected, and then retyped in the targetlanguage or “pasted” by a “copy and paste” operation. To provide thetarget language text elements for the “copy and paste” operation, thetranslator's file must be opened, each target language text elementidentified, located, selected and “copied” manually into the computer'smemory “clipboard”. A typical “find and replace” operation may also beemployed, involving substantially the same operations, gainingefficiency mainly when an Artwork is heavily cluttered with textobjects. For the translation of a typical Artwork, such as a road mapthis same procedure may need to be repeated numerous times.

Working with several languages may require loading additional operatingsystem support for the relevant language. Typing a translation inanother language, especially for non-Latin scripts such as Cyrillic,Hebrew or Arabic will usually involve loading the appropriate keyboardlayout file (in MS Windows—through the Control Panel, International) andmay also require replacing the actual hardware keyboard attached to thecomputer, as this keyboard usually corresponds to the primary languageof the user.

Target language text may also require change of fonts, appropriate fontsmay have to be selected, obtained and installed in the designer'scomputer. Additional operations may also be required from the Designersuch as specifying, creating and naming new styles and layers. Text inone language is rarely similar to the same text in another language asto the number of characters or words. Designer intervention may furtherbe required in order to manipulate target language text alignment,placement and attributes, such as character size and weight, kerningetc.

A Designer may not be proficient in the target language. Thus, incorrectreplacements and spelling mistakes (“typos”) are likely to happen andcareful proofreading is required. When corrections are indicated, thedesigner has to re-open the relevant Artwork, identify each faulty textand manually replace or correct it. For translation of Artwork intoforeign scripts a Designer with the specific language skills may have tobe enlisted or the Artwork file may need to be passed on to anotherDesigner, possibly in another country.

Adding objects such as translations onto an existing Artwork alsopresents more problems. It may be necessary to add an object onto anexisting artwork in a location relative to another existing object. Suchadditions may be required when an additional text object in anotherlanguage, such as a translation, transliteration or alternative name,has to be inserted to appear next to a source text object. Typically theadded text may be required in a different font, possibly with differentattributes such as size or color. In such a case, when the source textobject is not erased or replaced, the Designer has to manually identifyand locate both the relevant source and the target text objects, andthen manually place, align and apply the relevant attributes for eachadditional text object. Precise positioning and alignment of theadditional text object in an exact relative position to an existing textobject is typically required.

An artwork file may be manually created by a Designer, or may be derivedfrom computerized information contained in other sources, such asGeographic Information System (GIS) data as is frequently the case whencreating modern maps and atlases.

Positioning of objects in an Artwork and/or placing the objects on apage is a task that involves skill, artistic approach and additionallyan inspecting eye. A file that is automatically generated is in manycases unacceptable by common standards. A lot of manual work is neededin order to adapt a GIS map to a form that can be acceptable accordingto the cartographic tradition. Required manual work typically involvesplacement of objects, direction of texts, local displacement of labels,as well as changes in text formatting—increasing and decreasing typesize, changing the justification of compound names which run multiplelines. Much academic work has been done as well as specialized softwaredeveloped by commercial companies, such as ESRI, producers of Maplex™, amap labeling software (http://www.esri.com/software/maplexlo, toautomate such tasks as, for example, collision detection, placement ofcaptions according to the geometry of the area these captions refer to.Even with such programs, a Designer typically needs to work long hoursin order to modify a computer generated artwork file, so that it will beconsidered acceptable by artistic standards. Related patents andproducts are beyond the scope of this invention, as the objective rulesfor relocating objects can only serve as an approximation in the attemptto create a clear and visually pleasing artwork file, as describedearlier.

A Designer, may have to create actual inaccuracies (relative to theactual locations) in the resulting map, because more than one elementmay have to be placed in each others proximity. In order to avoidcollisions and clashes the Designer may move or separate the objects sothat at least one of them is not in its exact geographic location, Thedecision which element should be moved, in which direction and whatother changes to objects have to be performed has not yet beenautomated. Some programs and software packages (such as Maplex™ by ESRI)offer a limited solution to these problems by assigning elements an“importance value” that is used to determine which element hasprecedence over the other when changes are to be applied. Maplex™ alsoenables the Designer to decide what will be the order of labelpositioning of an object relative to its actual location. None of therelated patents or programs the problem of actual changes in thelocation of the representing point, which defines the location of anobject. These programs merely deal with the positioning of the label,assuming the point is in a fixed location.

It is therefore clear that even when a very sophisticated package hasbeen used to better position objects and labels on a page, a map etc.,additional manual work, which cannot be saved and reproducedautomatically on new versions of the artwork file, if they were to berecreated from updated GIS data.

From the previous discussion it is clear that in reality, the automaticprocess of converting large corpora of data into an artwork file thatcan be viewed, displayed or printed needs manual human intervention inorder to achieve useful as well as visually pleasing results. Whenapplying major changes to an existing artwork file it is often a dilemmawhether to recreate the file afresh from the raw data, and incure theadded cost of incorporating all the manual changes into it, or tomanually apply relevant changes to the Artwork's previously edited file.It is therefore clear that when a global change to labels is made, suchas translating from one language to another, one cannot simply createthe map afresh from the original G.I.S. data because the informationrelating to all objects that were displaced from their originallocation, was lost.

Therefore, when changing the language of the Artwork file, for examplewhen creating a new version of a map in another language, it may beadvantageous not to start “from scratch” from the original data andreplace the text into the other target language via the GIS database,but from the then-final version of the Artwork file and introducewhatever language specific changes are necessary in that file.Recreating the map and introducing the same displacements, relocationsand typographical changes to the elements in the map is very costly andinefficient. It is frequently more economical and therefore advisable tostart with the artwork file, which already contains the necessarychanges due to overlaps, collisions and like considerations, togetherwith culture-driven changes, and to change that file according to thenew requirements—be it translation into another language, a newerversion, the correction of certain parameters and changes in someobjects.

Related Prior Art to the invention to be described hereinafter includesvarious software programs that offer extraction of text from existingtext document files such as word processing, etc. for purposes such asconstruction of terminology lists, indexing, aligning for translation,etc. Other programs typically parse existing software resource filesextracting text for translation of the user interface and messagesneeded for construction of localized or multi-lingual computer softwareand operating systems (Particularly important for this discussion areTranslation Memory (TM) or Machine Assisted Human Translation (MAHT) andTerminology Management Tools). Some of these software tools allow thetranslator to improve his productivity and consistency by re-using termsand sentences they have translated in the past by using TM. Still othersoftware utilities exist foe translating labels in CAD files/

The following U.S. patents may be regarded as prior art: U.S. Pat. Nos.6,345,244; 5,678,039; 5,678,039; 5,497,319; 5,850,561; 5,551,055. noneof these patents teach a method close to the one described herein. Thesepatents merely describe ways of extracting text from either scanned,bitmap files and reconstructing a new graphic based on transformedtexts, or merely pertain to the task of translation matching, which isnot the scope of this patent.

There is at least one product, “Annotationtranslator” for AutoCAD filesby CR/LF GmbH from Germany which is a simple translation tool to producethe same CAD drawing in more than one language. This tool only givesaccess to the text of an object, without allowing control over otherparameters such as the layers, text style, position manipulations, etc.

The popular Adobe Acrobat Portable Document Format (PDF) may be definedas an Artwork file. Several commercial software programs, such as JADEby BCLTechnologies and Gemini by Iceni, are offering extraction of textfrom within Adobe Acrobat PDF files, with some of its formatting. Theseprograms allow only “one way” extraction, typically for furthermanipulation in other programs. An automatic method for replacing textobjects is offered by Adobe Systems Inc.®. This method, named“Data-Driven Graphics” may be performed from within Adobe Illustrator™Artwork program. This method involves manually placing variables to beembedded (bound) into objects. The textual content may be automaticallyaccessed and manipulated through the identification of these embeddedvariables. Access to previously embedded code is also offered by AdobeSystems® in their Graphics Server™ functionalities.

Limitations of Prior Art Methods:

The automatic methods offered by Adobe Systems® are incapable ofprocessing the vast numbers of existing Artwork digital files. Thesemethods involve manual insertion of variables, so any desiredmanipulation to the text objects requires extensive manual handling ofeach text object. No automatic method is offered for extraction of textobjects. No external interface for manipulating properties is offered.

All other (none Adobe) prior-art methods may now be further discussedand criticized. The typical text handling capabilities provided by theprior-art programs or documents are limited to basic formattingproperties only, such as typeface, size, weight, justification, tabs,etc.

For clarity, a fundamental distinction should be drawn between simpletext, which may carry some limited formatting properties, and TextObject Attributes having a wide set of properties pertaining to theappearance of the text object (as described at the beginning of thisdocument).

The prior-art may provide a method to externally edit content but failsto provide for precise transformations, manipulations and modificationsto position and appearance attributes. Prior-art makes no reference totext objects, in the sense used within graphic, Artwork producingapplications, where a text is also regarded as a graphic object.Prior-art makes no reference to the layers structure, an extremelyimportant feature of Artwork programs, nor offers a solution to createnew layers via external means.

Access to the extremely wide array of precise Text Object Attributes isoffered only within Artwork programs, programs typically having strongreliance on the Postscript PDL (Page Description Language) and itsunderlying Vector (Object Oriented) structure. Artwork programs'fundamental design is based upon a basically static, fixed location ofeach and every text object, with precise reference to “points” on a pagedefined by coordinates. In contrast, the position of texts in texteditors and word-processing programs is relative to the text precedingit on the page, and may be modified by changes in previous pages. Texteditors and word-processing programs are generally concerned withmulti-page documents and the flow of “running” text. If a portion oftext is removed, the following portion of the document will typically“re-flow”. When a change to the page size or the margins is performed,it will typically influence the formatting and all text may re-flow,forcing movements to all text and other elements.

A fundamental limitation of the above-described prior-art processes isthe total separation between the Originator and the “his” Artwork.Another limitation is that the Designer, operating his Artwork program,must manually perform all manipulations to the text objects contained inan Artwork. When external database interactivity is desired for textobject manipulation or replacement (such as by Adobe), each and everytext object must be manually provided with special information or code,from within the Artwork program.

The above described processes are laborious, tedious, time consuming andprone to error, and therefore very costly. There is no currentlyavailable method and system to accomplish all above mentioned objectmanipulations in an automatic, cost efficient manner.

OBJECT AND BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE PRESENT INVENTION

The object of the invention is to provide an integrated expert systemfor efficiently transforming location based objects, such as text orgraphic objects, included in a digital source Artwork file, for examplea geographical map file or a CAD design, and creating a transformedtarget Artwork file. The method is particularly advantageous inconverting geographical maps from one language to another, avoidingmajor re-editing of the source file, but keeping the appearance andquality of the location based translated text. The method includes toolsfor extracting required location based objects, for example textelements, from the source file, including all pertaining informationinto a first intermediate structured database, represented for the useras, for example, a table. The required transformations are then operatedon the objects stored in the table, partly manually but alsoautomatically creating a transformed second intermediate database, whichis subsequently integrated with the source file to create a target file,which represents, for example, a new map with translated text objects onnew layers.

The method includes user visible and operable intermediate structuredfiles, preferably tables, which enable constant quality control of theoperation and external manual intervention in the location andappearance attributes, where required. A knowledge base repository isincluded, permitting accumulation and subsequent use of informationrelevant to the operation, such as translation of geographical textelements from one language to another.

The invention is implemented in software, based on known in the artArtwork design and data manipulation tools with the necessary additionalsoftware elements permitting the user, may it be the Originator or aDesigner, to work in a familiar environment.

BREIF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The invention is herein described, by way of example only, withreference to the accompanying drawings, wherein:

FIG. 1 illustrates a schematic flow chart of the embodiments describedin the present invention.

FIG. 2 illustrates an exemplary Source Project Database, as described inthe present invention.

FIG. 3 illustrates an exemplary Type Aspect Table, as described in thepresent invention.

FIG. 4 illustrates an exemplary table representing part of theIntermediate Project DB, as described in the present invention.

FIG. 5 illustrates an exemplary representation of the automaticextraction process of text objects from a Source Artwork to the SourceProject Database, as described in the present invention.

FIG. 6 illustrates an exemplary representation of the automaticintegration of text objects from the Target Project Database to theTarget Artwork, as described in the present invention.

FIG. 7A and FIG. 7B illustrates an exemplary process of creating agraphic object with minimal text, as described in the present invention.

FIG. 8 illustrates an exemplary table representing the Source ProjectDatabase, as used for creating a graphic object of FIGS. 7A and 7B.

DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

The present invention discloses, by way of example, three preferredembodiments, each employing different means for achieving the same end.

A third embodiment describes how this invention is employed to performcreation of new Artwork by pre-preparing the objects in a suitablemanner.

In the first embodiment, the extraction of selected objects is performedfrom within Artwork Program 10 of FIG. 1, for example Freehand™ byMacromedia Inc.®, USA., at run-time, through the use of specificallydeveloped plug-in software to be described herein. A schematic flowchart of this embodiment is provided, marked as FIG. 1. The plug-insoftware module, labeled “Extractor”, is marked as task 105. The“Extractor” 105 extends the capabilities of the Artwork Program originalfunctionalities, offering several options for automatic extraction ofthe desired objects, together with all pertaining information, into asuitably pre-constructed database.

The Source Artwork file 100 is loaded into the Artwork Program 10 andthe user selects the objects of interest (based on the layers in whichthey are defined, their style, or other properties). The “Extractor” 105scans 106 the Source Artwork file 100 and extracts each selected object,using known in the art tools, with its corresponding object attributes,together with other desired information and populates a database table,marked as Source Project DB 110. This table marked Source ProjectDatabase 110 is pre-constructed in such a way, that each Source Artworkobject is defined as a record (row), and stored with any desiredinformation related to it, such as its layer name, object attributes,style, position, alignment, orientation, location, color, etc., eacharranged in their respective database fields (columns). Exact locationcoordinates defining bounding box of the object, its shape, angle,orientation, direction and any other desirable information are included.

For each object the Extractor records the internal object's ID number,and if such ID number is not found—assigns 107 a sequential ID Number toall selected objects in the Source file, and registers this ID Numberalongside the object's properties in the database file (column 230 inFIG. 2). The Extractor assigns this ID number to the object itself inthe Source file, by using commands and software tools usually present inthe Artwork Program or supplied by its vendor. In cases where theoriginal Artwork Program does not support adding an identification fieldto objects, the Extractor adds an attribute whose value corresponds tothe sequential identification number and which does not cause a changeto the appearance of the object in the Artwork file. It was found thatsuch inert attributes can be found with such Programs if anidentification field is not available. Alternatively, this ID Number canbe put as an object on a new, dedicated layer, in a position relative tothe location of the object to which it refers. Additionally, an optionmay provide that the ID Numbers be displayed affixed to the objects'text, so that it appears as a prefix or suffix of the object in anyvisible representation. A sample representation (partial “screen grab”)of such database 110 is provided and marked as FIG. 2.

A number of automatic processes operate on a working copy of the ProjectDB 110 according to rules and lists of changes stored outside theprograms. These processes use a Knowledge Base Repository 25 where rulesfor creating objects, assigning attributes and Type Aspects to them arestored and maintained. A Multi-lingual Master Database 125 is providedwithin the Knowledge Base Repository 25 for storage, management andcontrol of the acquired textual data from many related ProjectDatabases. This Master Database may be automatically expanded withtranslations and relevant other related data accumulated from previousrelated projects and evolves with each use. The rules in the KnowledgeBase Repository are updated and changed according to the experienceacquired through applying the rules to projects, so this is adynamically updated database.

The Master Database 125 may be a Relational Database. It may be providedwith tools to connect to other, external or remote databases,dictionaries and glossaries, to search and obtain required data. It canalso be a commercial Translation Memory as is known in the art.

In the group of Automatic Processes 20, an automatic task 120 scans thelist of original text 200 (FIG. 2) and tries to find a match in amultilingual translation DB 125. If previous translations are found,they are retrieved and placed in a “Candidate translations” field 215(FIG. 2) in the working copy of Source Project Database 110. If previoustranslations are not found, the corresponding field is left blank. Thesimplest way to retrieve previously approved translations is byextracting the column containing the names and words that needtranslation 200, translating them using the tools and methods providedby known in the art Translation Memory programs to receive a translatedcolumn of words, and then reinstalling the translated text column in the“candidate translation” column 215.

Another automatic task 155 in group 20 analyzes the records andautomatically assigns an alphanumeric Type Aspect (TA) or Style Name toeach record in the working copy of database 110. Objects that share apredefined set of attributes, such as the same typeface, font size,weight etc., as well as the same layer are assigned a similar TA. ThisTA is disjoint from the object's style, as assigned in the ArtworkProgram, and it is artificially created by the Extractor based onsimilarity of objects sharing common properties. Thus objects that areassigned different styles in the Artwork Program may be assigned thesame alphanumeric TA name by the Extractor, in cases where the differentArtwork style names have in reality, the same attributes.

Another table 172, part of the group of Spreadsheet InterFace 40, isautomatically created, listing all the different newly created TypeAspect Names together with their defining attributes. A sample of a TypeAspect Table is shown in FIG. 3. Representation Rules 135 (group 25) areused to automatically change the Type Aspects and intrinsic attributesof objects due to different language, aesthetic constraints that requiresize change etc. i.e. when translating from one language to another, thesize of print (point size) may need to decrease, or increase, topreserve the same legibility of the original text. Such point sizechanges may require further changes such as leading, inter-letter spaceetc. This task is marked 130 in group 20.

New objects are introduced into the working copy of Project DB 110 byautomatic process 140 that uses creation rules 145 in group 25 tointroduce new objects into the DB. Such automatic object creation andinsertion may, for example, add rectangles in a special color, asbackground objects for highlighting questionable text objects that needuser attention, connecting questionable objects with visible lines, andadding objects according to a general rule—such as adding an underlineto a specific group of objects based on their attributes. The user canadd objects manually, by editing the table accordingly. This is done byinserting new rows (either newly created or duplicating existing rowsand changing their contents) that represent the new objects and theirattributes.

A specially prepared software program Spreadsheet Interface 40 isprovided to ease the interaction of laymen such as originators to thedatabase, by transforming the Source Project DB 110 into an interfacingformat 170 (Intermediate project DB), which is preferably a spreadsheet.This Spreadsheet Interface 40 also initiates the conversions 160 ofcharacter sets for different languages, and other localization issuesand data representation issues, such as conversions of local codeversions into 16-bit UNICODE character set. Character conversion usuallytakes place when selecting a different font (and sometimes point-size)than the original ones that were used in the Source file. Finally theworking copy of Source Project DB 110 is converted into an easilyinterchanged format, such as a spreadsheet, by task 165, resulting inthe intermediate project DB 170 to which The Type Aspect Table 172 isattached.

Conversions may be performed into desired tabular, textual (withformatting such as tab delimiters or otherwise), word processing,database or spreadsheet format.

It is emphasized that the format of 170 Intermediate DB can be any knowin the art format that is easily accessible by the Originator, such asword processing table, spreadsheet or a personal database program. Thepreferred embodiment uses a known in the art spreadsheet file that iscommonly used and enables sorting, enumeration and calculations formaintaining data integrity and other checks.

In the preferred embodiment, an Excel table (FIG. 2) is provided to theOriginator or translator, who verifies candidate translations (215) andinserts missing translations into the relevant cells. The intermediateDB 170 may be sent out to several parties for review and editing. Inaddition to the automatic text substitution through various softwareproducts, one can change the text manually, i.e. when the automatic textsubstitution is found lacking or inaccurate or no match was found. Thisis done by entering different values in the table in FIG. 2 marked as“manual process” task 175 in FIG. 1.

The quality and accuracy of the translation process is enhanced by thefact that Original Layer Names are provided for each text object in thetable of FIG. 2, so that the meaning or general classification of theterm becomes readily apparent. This provides for an efficient, fast,less error prone process.

For example, if the translator is not familiar with the name Sardinia(item 510 in FIG. 2), it is a helpful “hint” to be able to ascertainthat it is indeed, an Island, as indicated in the “Original layer” field241 of the table in cell 541.

Additionally the user may define New Type Aspects (FIG. 3, item 310), sothat all objects sharing a specific Type Aspect will be shown in a newmanner. The rules may include considerations other than the objects' owntextual properties, such as, for example, to change the font size ofobjects in the vicinity of another object or in a specific location onthe page.

The Originator may further indicate, in a field provided in FIG. 2, thatany new target text object is assigned to a new layer, leaving alloriginal Source text objects intact in their original layers. New layersare automatically created and named with the original layer's name witha predetermined prefix, such as NEW. New layers are automatically markedto become “Visible layers”, while the “old” layers are marked to become“Invisible” layers. (Reasons are detailed later).

The Originator may decide to delete a specific object, by marking it as“non printing” in the relevant field 247. The Originator may modify andoverride any default attribute or TA at will.

In the first preferred embodiment, font size for the capital city “Rome”505, as an example, may be required to be enlarged, or the alignment ofa text object may need to be modified, such as “Centered” instead of“Left” aligned. Thus, new target text objects may be created within theoriginal Artwork in separate layers, providing the designer, at a laterstage, an option to “turn ON” or “turn OFF” the visibility andprintability of selected layers for visual interactive inspection andmodification. The Originator may decide to add new text objects andspecify their attributes. These new, added objects would appear on theTarget Artwork, outside of the boundaries of the original Artwork, ifthe exact location is not specified by the originator. The designer,within his Artwork Program would provide exact positioning of each newtext in an interactive mode, at a later stage. This method provides forthe integrity of the new text objects and their attributes. After theabovementioned modifications are performed, a DB interface B 180produces an intermediate output 185 to facilitate the understanding ofthe new file. This intermediate output 185 is in a different fileformat, which is easily understood by the Originator and the designer.Such formats can be, for example, a PDF file, or a hard copy printedversion of either the Spreadsheet file or the Artwork file, or both.This intermediate output is preferably produced by first creating atemporary Artwork file from the intermediate DB (by activating theIntegrator 197 of group 10 as described below) and then producing theintermediate output from this temporary Artwork file.

At this stage the Originator inspects 187 the intermediate output file185 and if (task 190) corrections or changes are needed, marks it andmanually changes it in task 175. If the intermediate file 185 inapproved, the Intermediate DB 170 is transformed back into a DB formatnamed Target Project DB 195.

When the Intermediate File is approved, all changes to the file areincorporated in the knowledge base 40. The knowledge base repository 40is updated either by adding new rules and translation pairs, or bychanging the existing ones to reflect the needed changes.

Several intermediate DB's from different projects may be combined intoone Target Project DB; Thus the invention provides a method foraugmenting existing Artwork, create new Artwork by reusing previouswork, and even using previous Artwork as “building blocks” for makingnew Artwork files without the need to generate such files in an ArtworkProgram.

Another plug-in software labeled “Integrator” 197 is provided for theArtwork Program 10 for extending the capabilities of the ArtworkProgram.

Integrator 197 reads the target project DB 195 and creates new layerswithin the original Source Artwork file 100, in which all the objectsdescribed in the Target DB reside. Integrator 197 may delete objects, ifso indicated and replace them with new objects in the original layers,to arrive at the desired result Target Artwork file 199. The creation oflayers and objects as well as deletion and other operations done withinthe Artwork Program are performed by using available commands within theArtwork Program.

Using the described methods of the invention, a Source Artwork file withno layers in it may be manipulated and recreated with its originalobjects laid out in as many new layers as desired. This capability isdesirable in many cases where “flat” files are required to be turnedinto “layered” files. Additionally, manipulation of objects by movingthem between existing layers or into newly created layers is alsofeasible with minimal effort by the Designer.

The disclosed embodiment may be implemented for many different fileformats, by pre-conversion into “pdf” (Adobe Acrobat) or “ai” (AdobeIllustrator).

The Adobe Illustrator (“ai”) file format is very popular and supportedby many Artwork Programs for data exchange.

Second Embodiment

In the second embodiment, the Extraction 105 is performed on a “closed”file, in the native program's file format. (Unlike “open” file, withinthe Artwork Program, at run-time, as in the first embodiment).

In this second embodiment an originating Artwork Program 10 is notrequired. The Extractor 105 scans the “closed” file, which is the sameSource Artwork file 100, and performs substantially the same scanning asin the first embodiment, based on through understanding the filestructure.

All steps described above for the first embodiment following theExtraction 105 are performed for this second embodiment by the sametools and methods, with one notable difference, namely:

The Integrator 198 creates a copy of the “closed” file with all thenecessary changes are written in the data, producing a new file with therequired manipulations, new layers, etc.

The disclosed embodiment may be implemented using the Adobe Illustrator,Acrobat PDF, Autocad DXF, or any other convenient file format, thusproviding for its usability for many different Artwork file formats, bypre-conversion into “pdf” (Adobe Acrobat) or “ai” (Adobe Illustrator).

In this embodiment tasks 120 up to 190 are practically the same asdescribed for the first embodiment, and may be using substantially thesame software tools.

Third Embodiment

This embodiment is implemented within the Artwork Program 10, atrun-time.

FIGS. (7 a), (7 b) and 8 will show how the methods of invention areapplied to graphic objects without text or with minimal text, such as ameasuring ruler. To begin, the Designer defines the required “buildingblocks” for such a ruler, namely a horizontal line 410 defining the baseof the ruler, a vertical line 420 for the major divisions (centimetersin this example), another vertical line 430 for marking the 5 mmdivisions, and a short vertical line 440 for the smallest divisions(millimeters). Also defined are the numerals for the ruler 450—as textobject with its desired text attributes.

FIG. (8) shows the result of the extraction of this Artwork file intothe Source DB. For each column with original property such as xposition, y position, length, height etc. there is provided anotherblank column “new” x position etc. The Designer may duplicate each linecorresponding to an object, enter new values for position, length, size,color and any other attribute. This can be done manually or as a resultof activating formulae, by copying the formula and hence changing theresulting values according to the position of the line or other methodsknown in the art. Excel offers internal tools enabling users to createUser Interfaces (UI) at will, such UI will ease the creation of therequired table.

For other objects such as circles etc. other measurements exist, such asthe radius 265 or other dimensions, according to the object at hand.

New instances of the objects are given new ID numbers.

After the integrator 198 reads the file in FIG. (8), the resulting FIG.(7 b) shows a ruler as desired, where all the new objects are in thecalculated location.

A sample representation (partial “screen grab”) of such a database isrepresented by FIG. 8.

The advantages of producing an Artwork by the method described in thisembodiment lie in the “datacentric” approach, offering flexibility infuture recreation of Artwork by simply changing a few parameters in acommonly available tool such as a spreadsheet.

This approach may save many work hours for designers when Artwork isrequired in several dimensions, such as creating measuring rulers inmany lengths and different measuring scales such as Points, Picas,Inches-Decimal and Inches-Imperial.

While the invention has been described with respect to three preferredembodiments, it will be appreciated that this is set forth purely forpurposes of example, and that many other variations, modifications andapplications of the invention may be made.

1. A method of transforming an Artwork, comprising: extracting datarepresenting location based objects from a source file of said Artwork;registering said extracted data in a first structured intermediatedatabase; transforming said registered data, according to storedinstructions; registering said transformed data in a second intermediatestructured database, and transforming said source file of said Artworkaccording to said transformed data registered in said secondintermediate database to create a target Artwork file.
 2. The methodaccording to claim 1, wherein said source files are one of draw-vectorgraphics programs such as Adobe Illustrator (ai), Adobe Acrobat (pdf),Macromedia Freehand, Corel Draw (cdr).
 3. The method according to claim1, wherein said source files are described in one of Quark Xpress (qxd),Adobe Pagemaker (pm), Adobe Indesign (pdf) or Autodesk AutoCad (dwg;dxf)description file.
 4. The method according to claim 1, wherein saidsource files are described in any page description language thatattaches page location to objects described in it.
 5. The methodaccording to claim 1, wherein said source files are rich text filesdescribed in great detail objects, their attributes and locations, suchas in the extended markup language (XML) and its derivatives and relatedformats.
 6. The method according to claim 1, wherein said location basedobject is expressed in coordinates of a 2D representation medium.
 7. Themethod according to claim 4, wherein said 2D representation is one ofgeographical map or technical drawing.
 8. The method according to claim1, wherein said location based object is characterized by itsappearance, including geometric form, color, line style and print style.9. The method according to claim 8, wherein said location based objectis characterized by identification data including text and numbers. 10.The method according to claim 1, wherein said location based object ischaracterized by data calculated from its relationship to other objectsin the same source file.
 11. The method according to claim 1, whereinsaid first structured intermediate database is represented by a tabularstructure, including a spreadsheet.
 12. The method according to claim 1,wherein said first structured intermediate database is a tagged textfile with sufficient details describing the object so thatreconstructing the original file is possible.
 13. The method accordingto claim 11, wherein said first intermediate database is a spreadsheetand the commands for transforming the objects are spreadsheet commands.14. The method according to claim 13, wherein said spreadsheetmanipulation commands are stored in additional related files.
 15. Themethod according to claim 1, wherein transforming includes changing thetext associated with an object, or its attributes, or its location onthe page.
 16. The method according to claim 1, wherein said firstintermediate database includes additional data from at least one suchdatabase previously prepared from other source files.
 17. The methodaccording to claim 1, wherein said first intermediate database includesdescriptive data of objects not extracted from said source file.
 18. Themethod according to claim 1, wherein at least one of said objects wasgiven an instruction to be subsequently omitted in said firstintermediate database.
 19. The method according to claim 1, wherein saidtransforming includes changing properties of said objects in the sourcefile according to instructions included in said first intermediatedatabase.
 20. The method according to claim 1, wherein said transformingincludes creating new objects in the source file where secondintermediate database includes description of objects not extracted fromsaid source file.
 21. The method according to claim 19, wherein for eachobject detailed in the second intermediate database a new object iscreated in the source file.
 22. The method according to claim 21,wherein said objects are arranged in layers, or not arranged in layers,or rearranged in layers, where new objects are put in new layers or putin the original layers.
 23. The method according to claim 1, wherein thedata in said first intermediate database can be manually edited by theuser including entering new values in lieu of present values in thefile.
 24. The method according to claim 23, wherein said manual changescan be applied to the original extracted version of said database or amanipulated version.
 25. The method according to claim 24, wherein saidspreadsheet manipulations can be applied to the original extractedversion of said database or a manipulated version.
 26. The methodaccording to claim 1, wherein objects are added or changed by directlychanging said source file.
 27. The method according to claim 1, whereinobjects are added or changed by causing the originating program to addor change said objects, using software additions to said originatingsoftware.
 28. The method according to claim 27, wherein the changes aredone manually by an operator that activates said software additions. 29.The method according to claim 27, wherein the changes are doneautomatically by activating said software additions.
 30. The methodaccording to claim 1, wherein the target file is the same type as thesource file.
 31. The method according to claim 1, wherein the type oftarget file different than the source file.